'Storage Hunters' Star Accused of Holding Town's Residents 'Hostage'

One of the stars of Storage Hunters is being accused of a strange crime of holding a village "hostage" by secretly purchasing small land parcels, allegedly trying to charge locals high fees to park outside their homes.

According to The Daily Mail, Daniel Hill spent around £18,000 to purchase a set of contested plots in Haslingfield, Cambridgeshire. With that, he is accused of demanding residents pay £576 a week or £30,000 annually per resident to park in spots they had used for free for decades.

Hill is best known for Storage Hunters U.K. and his catchphrase, "I'll have some of that!" The show ran from 2014 until 2016, originally broadcasting in the U.S. on TruTV and on Dave in the U.K., with Hill appearing in all seasons.

According to The Daily Mail, when the show ended he ended up being convicted of running an illegal dump on green-belt land in Surrey. He ended up being fined £2,500 and paid another £26,814.75 in a "confiscation order."

The latest controversy started earlier this year when Hill paid for the empty lots after an auction by the original developer. Residents were unaware the sale even happened. On top of the lots, Hill claims "he not only owns the two plots of land, but a sliver of land inside a garden and the rights to who uses the public road."

Things finally bubbled to the surface when Hill arrived on an early Monday morning with a chainsaw to cut down a tree in the estate's "tree-planting area." The residents were far from happy once they realized the extent of Hill's plan.

"Hill bought them for about £18,000, including fees. He told us that he wants to build houses on them. But these plots of land don't have planning permission and they are unlikely to get it. So the residents got together and we made a fair offer to buy the land from him. We offered him £40,000," Chartered Accountant Jonathan Wheeler detailed about the situation. "But he refused our offer. He said the plots of land were worth hundreds of thousands of pounds and that he had the right to charge us £30,000-a-year each to park our cars in the street...He says it's not about the money. But he is trying to hold us to ransom. So the residents have got together and we are going to fight back."

From there it gets weirder, with Hill locking the garden gate and putting up a sign threatening prosecution if they "trespassed" in their own garden. He also used yellow spray paint to mark the areas he owned.

The Daily Mail details the entire wild situation but also got a statement from Hill regarding his view of the situation. "We have always wanted to live in Cambridge[,] we saw a plot of land for sale online valued at £2,000 which included to [sic] potential building plots, roads, paths, and a parking area. We bought the land for £12,000," Hull said. "Before purchasing the land we did all the checks and found that their [sic] were no restrictions and in fact there was a planning polices [sic] that actually promoted development in the village.

"I have not held anyone to ransom, intimidated nor threatened anyone [,] all I have done is purchase land that was for sale," he added. They also note that he says he is also a "victim of assault, insults and threatening behaviour."